#anyway here we go noxus

[ann7av]

Okay, am I tripping or does Katarina (?) looks like the perfect love child of Caitiv??

The hair color (even tho hers is more red than pink), the sharp jaw, mouth shape, the blue eyes, smoky eyeshadow... I'm just saying, but it does look like they put those two in a blender and I'm so glad they did because she's beautiful, and apparently an assassin with raging daddy issues (yay)

Btw, wdym Pilltover was the SAFEST path to test out things??? Ambessa was the SAFEST choice???? AMBESSA??? Oh, we're so cooked, she was playing with the false messiah, fascism AND Mel simultaneously like it was disneyland just imagine what those two gothic divas will be doing to top that

[0-shutdown-0]

Hi! I wanted to create a collaboration of notes I had on Steb and his contribution to the plot of Arcane, also posted this on reddit, so here is everything from stuff I saw to things I hypothesized -

This is Steb:

You can look on his little fandom wiki tag for stuff that I don't touch BUT ESSENTIALLY

1 He appears in episode 1 as the silent officer who pokes Loris while Maddie talks to Vi. And from what I get from the conversation is that Steb had to have worked on the force long enough to be given Maddie as a junior officer that shadows him. An interesting combo considering he turned out to be reserved care and Maddie ended up being false cheer.

2 He's well trained in close combat and seems to prefer it on multiple occasions.

At the very beginning he holds a collapsible baton that seems to be geared more into disarming people or incapacitating them. During the attack on the memorial where he's not only the first to act but later when he reunites with Maddie and their surrounded by Shimmer mutants she seems to have given him a blade that Steb wasted no time in stabbing into the closest mutant. And it develops into him using dual single hand batons when he's enlisted on the strike team.

(We later see all mutants have spears in their head so I can't tell if he killed or not. But I do think he accidently killed the man that shot the flare because there was blood coming out, the mouth was parted open, and both Mel and Steb looked shocked.)

It isn't until episode 9 during the finale we see him shooting a gun that I think it resembles his decision that now he really doesn't have a choice other than to kill the enemy and save the platoon he was given to command (NOTE: I believe everyone he was given to command all ended up surviving) or die trying to knock people out and reduce casualties. I find it interesting especially since he's a medic in addition to being an enforcer.

3 HE IS SO AWARE OF EVERY LITTLE THING

Complete distrust to the Noxus when they arrive? Check. Wide eyed and stunned at Maddie and Caitlyn's decision to join the Noxus then literally checks out like Loris for a long while? Check. He's literally the person to see everything go down and just decides to assumably remove himself from the equation for the next few episodes before being called upon again AND I WISH I KNEW WHERE HE WENT (which has now led to me writing a fic but anyways)

4 Interesting things that I need to point out

-In the end of episode 1 where the strike team is introduced, Steb is the only one to not get a Hextech upgrade to his weaponry,

I assume this is from some type of moral code he continues to have where he refuses extreme force. Additionally, and its probably a stretch, the screen glitches over Maddie and Loris but focuses on him symbolizing he's the only one out of the three of them to live.

-His ears and his little cheek fin frills respond to EVERYTHING. Kind of reminding me of a fish's lateral line when it responds to vibrations in the water and stuff but anyways-

Considering he's some type of Vastya fishfolk, or half of cuz he has eyebrows and hair, it's interesting. I saw someone comment that the fishfolk had a connection to the Arcane and it's magic AND THAT WOULD HAVE BEEN SO COOL TO EXPAND ON BECAUSE IT MAKES SENSE. That could have been the reason why he averted to using Hextech advancements. And the more in tune senses helping him stay alive.

As well as explain why he was the first to act like in E1 and E3 when the strike team meets Heenox.

- Speaking of E3, you can literally see him not even look up at the murder dolls which includes everyone's death or injury but his coming true. And when he does treat Heenox not only does he see the effects of the Grey but when Caitlyn loads her gun to shoot the man Steb is turning to Vi like a "Get your woman???" 

He seemed to loose trust in Caitlyn there, as I noted he was the only one to look back when their group split as Vi and Caitlyn went off to face Jinx alone.

I can one hundred percent imagine Steb getting angry as a medic when he realizes he was kept in the dark about the use of the Grey as well, because he's not only the one who has to treat it but also has to live with the realization they did more harm to innocents and Jinx was in the right for rerouting all the vents they opened to release it.

- It appears that he is selectively mute, I assume that is has something to do with his biology since Jericho, the street vendor showed in S1 and later in S2, doesn't speak either but is seen being able to laugh and yell just like Steb. Personally think Steb doesn't speak much because its hard to do/hurts.

Which would have been so interesting to have been explored or at least acknowledged because it would have hit so much harder when in E9 we presumably hear him shout for his unit to get up and move when his leadership was needed most. 

-Maddie's betrayal had to have hurt so bad for him. She was his shadow, the one he was suppose to teach and in the end her ambition for power took hold of her and was the reason for her end. And for him to be someone so observant and careful and let that go right past him must have killed a part of him because he probably excused some of her behaviors. Like how Maddie had called Vi "one of the good ones" when referencing her origin from the Undercity. OR even when they were leaving and when Steb motioned for her to follow him Maddie only went when she heard another officer in the distance call for her.

It definitely could have been expanded on if the Arcane team was given a bigger budget for him to sign and Maddie to mistranslate or even ignore his authority because of his disability. Like, she cares for him but not enough to respect him.

I feel like when Caitlyn woke up to see Steb sitting there that pain was shown heavily but not enough. 

Anyways!

If you made it to the end of my rant, yay, this is all the deep diving I'm using for a fic and I hope it helps, if you have any thoughts to add please do!

[low-budget-korra]

The lies Arcane Fandom likes to believe

Okay, I've seen a lot of awful takes in other social medias but now they are getting here too and I just can't. So I will talk abt the truth a lot of the fandom chose to ignore. And I'm saying "the truth" because different from a lot of ppl, I've actually watched the show and paid attention to the scenes.

1. Jinx is the only one who has been traumatized

Half of the worst takes about characters like Vi or Caitlyn, wouldn't exist if ppl realize that Jinx WASN'T the only one who got traumatized. Vi spent 7y getting beat up in prison, without eating properly and confined in a dirt cell. And no, she is not the one to blame for the person Jinx became. Jinx has to be held accountable for that, just as much as Silco for feeding her paranoias and manipulating her for years.

2. Caitlyn was a evil character and manipulated Vi

Season 1 Caitlyn shows nothing but empathy and patience, y'all like to say Jinx was a revolutionary but s1 Caitlyn was a revolutionary. "Oh but she was rich, she can't be" oh my sweet summer child...

Anyways, she wanted to end Silco cartel - that was destroying Zaun. She even managed to get a council meeting to talk about this. She wanted to change things and she was acting towards this.

Then she got kidnapped naked, tortured for hours, didn't take the shot that would have saved her mother's life, her mother was murdered, the memorial ceremony was attacked and yet she REFUSED to follow the council's ideas to use full force and invade Zaun. Which led us to

2.1 Caitlyn used the grey against innocents

She DIDN'T. She said it herself that the plan was to capture Silco's goons and destroy the slimmer factories. And we see that in the Hellfire sequence.

So stop spreading that she was using the grey against innocents bc the people she used against it were Chembaroons who provoked a civil war on Zaun for power, and used children labor in its factories. They are far from innocents.

2.2 Caitlyn manipulates Vi

I don't even know where this fake news came from bc I've already watched Arcane 3 times, watch at least 4 reaction channels and a few analysis on yt and no one apart from some of y'all in fandom sees this. Jinx manipulates Vi way more than Caitlyn, for example, she is the one that makes Vi believe that her becoming Jinx is her fault.

3. Viktor and Jayce did nothing wrong

Jayce basically built a Chernobyl above Zaun just bc if Hextech goes bad, people from Zaun would be the ones suffering the consequences and not Piltover.

Y'all like to call Caitlyn a genocide (even tho we didn't see any kill directly from hr actions), when Viktor is literally the one willing to kill people in the thousands just because he believes it's the best call. "I want to evolve all those willing to" excuse me? Sir, what "evolve" even means in this scenario? Bc those "evolved" ppl became nothing more than marionettes with no control over their actions and completely brainwashed.

4. Caitlyn was a dictator, she knew everything that was happening on Zaun and did nothing

Caitlyn was actually a pawn in Ambessa chess, a face to Ambessa actions, a face to take the blame for. Noxus could not just simply invade Piltover and install an Martial Law without the support of a major house like house Kiramman.

Essentially what Ambessa did was promote Caitlyn, and hide behind her status. Because if any other Piltie house questions, she could be like "but I'm just here to support the Kirammans, I'm just doing what Im told"

We see in episode 4 that the Noxians are the ones dealing with Zaun's turf wars. Do y'all actually believe their reports on what's happening was legit? Of course not. Caitlyn made her decisions based on those false reports that she didn't even give two fucks about bc she was still too focused on tracking Jinx. That's why when she started to really see what was going on and questions Ambessa, Ambessa quickly pulls the "mom" card to push Caitlyn back into her web.

Sure, she was still powerful and privileged but she wasn't in full control. And the fact that a lot of the fandom dismisses Ambessa's manipulation shows how good at that she is.

5. Vi choose to have sex instead of helping her suicidal sister

Vi DOESN'T watch Arcane. She doesn't know how bad Jinx was and mind you, last time Jinx was acting weird she blew up things instead of being suicidal. We, the Audience, watch her whole journey and change. Vi only stayed with her for a short period of time and she was in a coma for days. She doesn't know what happened after Isha sacrificed and how much this affected Jinx.

"breaking the cycle" could mean a lot of things and if you listen to her words when Caitlyn arrives, you can see that she clearly thinks Jinx is out there abt to blow something. She is blaming herself for believing in Jinx change of heart and not sad for her being suicidal, this prob actually never crossed Vi's mind.

6. CaitVi was forced

I can't with this ""argument"" CaitVi is the couple that has been built since s1 😭. I take that sometimes they were toxic (like when Cait hit Vi) but to say they were forced...please use it 🧠

7. Silco was a revolutionary and a good father do Jinx

Sure, in the past. There's nothing glorious or revolutionary in running a cartel, having business with corrupted cops and child labor. "But he was getting money to his revolution" my ass. He spent 7y doing nothing but becoming more and more powerful while Zaun became like the Pride Lands when Scar took over. He only gets back to his revolutionary ideas when Jinx stole the Hextech gem.

His beautiful speech doesn't match his horrible actions.

The fact that so many ppl see him as this perfect father figure, is the reason so many ppl so easily fall into abusive relationships. Yes, he took care of her but at the same time, he isolated Jinx from her sister , fed her paranoia and instigated her violence tendencies. And it's so clear bc the moment he was no longer in her life, she started to get better in her mental health.

Anyway to finish this long ass post lmao, I want to say that you are free to dislike and hate who you want and what narrative choice you want. The only thing, that ain't that hard, is be fucking honest abt it. There's no need to create bullshit expectations over your hate, ignoring the CANNON.

[theoddest1]

Okay so, ima type in what I typed to my friend here.

"Yeah Ima be so dead ass. ||Mel and Ekko carried the final for me, ESPECIALLY Ekko."

Yeah, they should have just kept [Viktor] being Ryze. That made more sense to me than whatever this is. And I am all for mlm rep, but yeah, this felt WAY too, Jayvikky. I liked it better that they were brothers to parallel Vander and Silco, who also found each other and became bros, but it seemed like they went with how popular JayVik was and stuck with it. And Jayce being strung with Viktor for wherever they went felt...kinda nonsensical. I'd rather that Viktor was thwarted and too far gone to then just suddenly have a change of heart and go with Jayce. I imagined that he would have a contingency where he, incase his body was destroyed, would then later rise again to try and enact "Glorious Evolution". It would go well with the themes of his beliefs anyway because every time he dies, he comes back stronger in a new body. I feel like that would better set the ongoing conflict and fit well with the game and why he looks the way he does currently.

I also don't like how quick he and Mel's reunion was considering how much he favored her along with his odd and sudden dislike for her decisions-- Seriously, where did that even come from!?"

[Thought it over further. Him calling her out on her actions isn't the issue. It's the timing and how this transpires that confuses me. He just came from a post-apocalyptic world where Mel, Viktor, and everything else came to mind. The lack of time for them to truly talk made the scene felt out of nowhere and not at all fleshed out. He goes on to place part of the blame on her when literally it wasn't. She DID manipulate but only politically. Everything else was on he and Viktor. Then, when he DOES confront Viktor, the vibes are different. Viktor hurt and caused a chain of events that led to several lives being taken to ensure survival and his "Glorious Evolution", why is this essentially overlooked? Maybe when I review this again, it will make more sense, but as of now, the way Jayce treats both Mel and Viktor is VERY questionable.]

"I would have been pretty happy if He at least gave her a hug, a kiss, something to make their relationship seem consistent with what we were shown. I know that he's been gone for a while and a lot more cold, but this was a very odd direction to go with. I am super happy about Cait and Mel fighting side by side and that Mel may be the main character for a new Noxus related show! [Which I knew they'd set up!] but this series, after seeing it in its entirety, DID suffer too much from the pacing issues. I assumed at the First Act that it was quick paced to go with how they've all been shifted into places they didn't see coming, but the pacing issues continued to bring down the quality. 3 seasons would have made way more sense and would go well with the 3 ACT formula they had used. I hope they learn from this and refrain from making similar mistakes.

[I responded to my friend who posted these images above] I knew they'd make a callback to this line eventually, and I am genuinely surprised people are not catching this obvious set up to Jinx living. Also, I am betting that Heimer did "die" but only that alternate version of himself. [Though obviously I could be wrong, though a life of various lifetimes where he helps each version of the main cast sounds very Heimerdinger of him, especially since he didn't wanna leave.]

The biggest letdown for me has to be Jayce and Viktor's story. It just...doesn't make sense with what we have been shown. Also, if Viktor KNOWS bad shit would happen when bringing Hextech to life and all, why TF would he give it to Jayce then???? Or if he STILL wanted magic to be tampered with shy doesn't he comvince himself in a way HE KNOWS would prevent what happens next, surely NOT EVERY timeline has it where you continue on the path of destruction! You see what I mean!?!? Leave the time crap to Ekko, man. This new inclusion makes no sense! And he does this in VARIOUS timeliness for some reason. Man, I wish it was just a random ass mage or Ryze, this added stuff kinda kills the finale for me🫠

I feel that making Viktor time travel ruins a huge aspect of the story, ngl, especially when Jayce argues that people can "craft their own path." The story also shouldn't have ended with what I could only assume both of them "dying" or traversing time instead. Also, the way Sky was treated and essentially replaced with Jayce feels....very very weeeeird."

[I believe that the ending just didn't land that well. I feel, now thinking over every character, Ekko, Mel, and Jinx carried this season HEAVY. These 3 were the most interesting parts of the season, honorable mention being Singed cause he be doing what he MUST. Also, what was the point of introducing Loris if all he was gonna end up being was a random guy who reminded Vi of Vander? I guess nothing is wrong with this, but when you're already stringing for time, these inclusions make no sense... I liked him, though, RIP Loris🤧. Oh, and Caut barely facing consequences is KINDA CRAZY but it goes with the themes of forgiveness/ acceptance. The Cycle would never end, after all, but yeah Vi and Cait made up WAY too fast and just shows that this needed another season. Let me know your thoughts!]

[acatthatmakeseclairs]

Arcane Season 2 Necrit Interview Transcript + my ramblings

Hello! I thought I’d share the transcript for the Necrit & Christian Linke Interview on tumblr because it flopped on reddit lol (you can find the transcript at the very end of this post (ⓛ ω ⓛ*) )

Some notes to consider before going through the transcript and the rest of this post:

The transcript is of the YouTube video ver. of the interview, I’m crazy, but I’m not so crazy that I’m going to attempt to transcribe a 4 hour VOD.

The transcript is images for now, because I would not be able to fit a 2+ hour interview in a 40k character limit (the interview is like 60k+ characters, 50k+ without spaces)

I’ve added timestamps so you guys can easily reference a question or response from the video directly; I’ve also highlighted certain sections of the interview that I thought were interesting :)

For the discussion section, I’ll be referencing this post, because… let’s just say it was quite incorrect in some sections or there were points that I thought would be cool to talk about.

I’ve tried to be as objective and accurate as I could when getting into the details of this interview, hence why I’ve referenced other interviews and production materials, like concept art, but again, I am human, and I can get things incorrect or I can off as a bit biased– but alas o(*￣▽￣*)o

Anyways, onto the discussion!

Noxus, Ionia and Demacia are getting shows and are next steps into this cinematic universe; they pick each setting to explore [different] sides of [Runeterra].

They are not each getting shows… the team working on this new project, has only, casually, announced one new project.

They are one year into production for one show- the fact that Christian Linke mentioned Noxus, Ionia and Demacia, implies that this new series has a story that is centred around all three nations, not unlike how Arcane’s conflict centered around 3 different nation states: Piltover, Zaun and Noxus, with Noxus being positioned as an overall antagonistic force.

I’m not too familiar with the timeline of League of Legends, but I’ve heard here and there that Swain, a much-teased character in Arcane’s finale, had made his deal with Raum after the Invasion of Ionia, and seeing as he’s made his little cameo after Viktor’s failed ‘Glorious Evolution’, this could imply that we won’t see Ionia in any direct capacity.

Ok, this part is purely wishful thinking, but I think that our main setting for the next installment of this greater story is Demacia.

Noxus is positioned as an antagonist, it would be kind of underwhelming to go right into the motivations and deep mysteries of your central antagonist.

Linke stated that the team starts with ‘character stories’ (01:46:31) before anything else, as well as saying that they like ‘seeing Champions [meeting & interacting]’ (00:03:22) and my brain likes to make connections where there might not be any but what if Jinx was heading towards Demacia, and becomes friends with Lux? Again, total reach, but it’s a fan-favourite duo and it would be a good continuation of Jinx’s story (if they do continue her story that is).

They [considered] Blitzcrank for Season 2.

Christian Linke suggested Blitzcrank to be involved in the story in some way, but the rest of the team shot the idea down, with Linke describing it as ‘silly’ (00:05:31); it was probably a small joke or gag, considering how Linke described it.  

[Heimerdinger] is not dead and other characters might [come] back to life.

Christian Linke did not outright confirm or deny Heimerdinger’s death nor the existence of Bandle City in the Arcane universe, all he said was “I’m not done with Heimerdinger.” (00:07:22) You also have to consider that this guy is a Heimerdinger main, and he’s only one person amongst many who is charge of the direction of Arcane, and it’s related properties. Can’t say I’m not hopeful of Heimerdinger coming back, I love that little guy so much.

As for the other characters? Again, no direct confirmation on Jinx (00:31:45), especially in the last Netflix Afterglow Interview, but Viktor and Jayce … I’ll get into it further.  

Swain is teased to [be] looking into [the history of the Arcane] and [the origins of demons].

I can’t say I fully disagree with this point, but not because of Christian Linke’s comments in this interview (00:19:28). Throughout this second season, Ambessa continues to try to recreate Hex-tech, where, yes, she’s doing it for her own self-serving desires, but who told her to go to Piltover in the first place? In my opinion, it might have been Swain, seeing as his raven is seen poking around looking for the Hex-gem in Jayce’s, now destroyed, hammer.

I should also add that in relation to the overall timeline of Arcane, and it soon to be related properties, is that the current events within Arcane, so let’s say Arcane’s conclusion, the Invasion of Ionia has concluded, as if you can remember, the woman that Ambessa killed in Mel’s backstory is an Ionian princess, check out these bits of concept art from the Fortiche artists (Link 1) & (Link 2).

[Pianist] is teased to be Jhin.

Go to (00:23:10) in the video linked, he did not make a connection between this side character and Jhin, also are we just forgetting that Jhin is Ionian? And he would be much older than this side character??

Ziggs was not [inspiration] for Isha.

I thought I’d add to this point about the inspiration behind Isha: Isha is described as a child of Zaun, with Linke commenting that her hat is a miner hat, which is an allusion to Zaun’s early mining industry (00:24:47). We can see in Act 1, that although she is a child, Isha is very invested in the independence and freedom of Zaun, seeing as she poses as Jinx in what is possibly various rallies in the Undercity. I’d like to think she’s Zaun’s hope :) (let’s not think about what her death implies for Zaun…)

Renata will [replace the Chem-barons] in future.

Again, no confirmation. This discussion (00:27:19), was just that- a discussion of the future of Piltover and Zaun. Based on the production timelines, we may not actually see newer Champions like Renata, because they are released during production; I think we might get a mention of her in the next series, though.

Viktor will be explored on later shows confirmed- he is more than just human or Arcane user now; he is something special.

The status of Viktor and Jayce was confirmed to be dead (ಥ_ಥ) by Christian Linke in the recent Netflix Afterglow interview for Season 2 Act 3- HOWEVER, he described Viktor and Jayce to be “disintegrated” (1:33 – Netflix Interview) which is not what happened on screen. Instead, what is show to us in the show that Viktor and Jayce are sucked into the acceleration rune.

(“They’re alive- they’re stuck in time purgatory!” I say as they drag me into the asylum)

It should also be mentioned that the team, or at least Christian Linke, are interested in exploring what Viktor has become by the end of Arcane (01:20:05), and potentially the fates of Viktor and Jayce post-Arcane– again this does not imply that we will see either of them in the story in any direct capacity.

As for what Viktor is? Throughout this interview, he’s described as a symbiosis between the technological and organic– this does not mean he’s ‘cured’ of his disease and he’s not still disabled!

Throughout season 2 act 2, we see Viktor continue to use his staff to support himself, and Jinx also comments on his appearance, saying that he ‘looks like he’s got a couple [of conditions]’ (hahaha)- lets also not forget that in his Machine Herald form, his leg and back brace are fused into his body. (Interesting how something similar happened to Mel when she unlocked her empath powers, her golden accessories fused into her body- what’s up with that Fortiche?)

Personally, based on what Linke said “… what's different about Viktor is the Hexcore … [the runes] used [in] the Hexcore [are] a different thing, [they’re] much more powerful …” (00:31:01), and of course what we see in the show, I think that Viktor’s body is directly connected to the Hex-core, which creates transmutations within Viktor’s body, keeping him ‘alive’ but he also becomes a mage.

In the world of Arcane/LoL, you can become a mage by either being born as one, or praying to an Aspect or a God. However, Viktor (with the unintentional help of Jayce) became a mage due to the Hex-corisation of his body and soul- but his magic is different from other mages. A lot of the patterns that appear on Mel’s force-fields are very clean, neat, like the runes we see drawn on the various Hex-tech devices, but whenever post-Glorious Evolution Viktor casts a spell, we see this white-glowing webbed orb appear, similar to Ekko’s Z-drive. Not sure what this means, but I thought I’d share my ramblings :)

Other champions from Zaun and Piltover will be brought up to Arcane timeline.

This point was briefly mentioned (00:31:55 - 00:32:15), but even I wasn’t sure about how to interpret this. I think it might refer to the character re-works in League of Legends, but so far they’ve only reworked characters actually featured in Arcane; I’m guessing future reworks for more characters are being discussed amongst the creatives at RIOT, but we have to wait for the upcoming series to see what’ll happen.

Urgot is coming later.

… Again, no direct confirmation, Linke said “Not yet … he wasn't part of the story. I do think Urgot is really interesting …” (00:33:03). Urgot is a character based in the Zaun/Piltover story, so seeing him in the sequel series is unlikely.

Viktor and Jayce are confirmed to be bromance- like very good friends who die for each other any given time.

Look, I’m biased as fuck when it comes to these two, but Christian Linke did say “… I think it’s not romantic.” Again, like with many things in this interview, this is his opinion.

Whilst he may be the co-creator behind Arcane, his opinion was only relevant to his contributions regarding their narrative, just like how the voice actors (for both Arcane and LoL!), the many animators, and writers at RIOT had their own important contributions and interpretations on the relationship between Jayce and Viktor.

From the stuff we’ve seen this past month from the cast and crew, with Toks Olagundoye reposting Jayvik fanart, Harry Llyod reading Jayvik fanfics, and Kevin Alejandro signing not one, but 2 Jayvik fanarts, as well as of course the many Jayvik artworks from the team over at Fortiche; it seems that quite a lot of the team have quite a differing opinion from Christian Linke, almost as if he’s missing something lol.

I’ll finish up this section with a comment from Amanda Overton, because it the best response to how their relationship is interpreted and the description of their relationship:

"Fans are always justified in reading things the way they want to because that’s part of making art. When you do a thing for it based on you, it doesn’t actually have meaning until other people give it their own meaning. My backstory is very different from your backstory and my experiences are very different from yours so I can only speak from my experience. When I put a thing that I’ve written out in the world, then everyone brings their own different experiences to it."

"We were writing them as a loving, brotherly relationship that unambiguously [had] love between them. When it got to that final moment, it was so romantic and beautiful to me when I saw it for the first time—the way Fortiche put it together—I was like, “Oh, well maybe there is hope [for] these guys to have some future beyond what the show intended.” That was really cool for me to see. If people want to imagine that, I think they can, and that’s wonderful. Now that the show is over, if there’s the potential for that out there, then that’s potential that our fans can realize for themselves."

House of Medarda will play part in future of [Runeterra].

Yep! Christian Linke alludes to this in (01:11:37). Mel, or perhaps an older Mel, will appear alongside Noxian characters like Swain and Darius in the future series. It will be interesting to see the political dynamics between these characters as Mel is not only a Medarda and a Mage, but someone intimately connected with the Black Rose (◉_◉).

Glorious Evolution robots are inspired by biblical angels without wings.

Linke said this when it came to the design of Viktor’s Glorious Evolution robots (01:15:10):

“We actually talked … about how we want to have something that depicts, in quotation marks, ‘angels’; something angelic and pure, but then also [that] has … slightly lost some of the expression and … humanity, in a way that's a bit eerie. That's what Viktor's vision [was], but it will deteriorate [one day].”

The religious imagery regarding Viktor was unintentional, the intention behind Viktor was more centred around depicting him as a Messiah– “… We never wanted to have this direct link to any specific religion, it's just this idea of some Messiah or someone that people [wanted] to follow … [it] doesn't have to be religious but, of course, there is a certain connotation. The beauty of religious art … [it’s] just absolutely beautiful stuff and the supernatural depictions of it … [is] very inspiring.” (01:19:14)

There are selected few who [organize] and keep lore in check.

This is not true! Or at least this has not been outright confirmed in this interview; the question at (01:24:24) was not fully answered by Linke in this interview.

I also want to add a though of my own regarding this quote from Linke, “I would say it's 70% us and 30% Fortiche having ideas and then we talk about it, and I agree.” (00:15:12). This attitude that all these ideas came mostly from the writing team seems a bit ‘egotistical’ as Viktor would say- there was a significant gap in communication between the writing team and the team at Fortiche when it came to the world-building, lore, and plot that was shown on screen (you can see this is the attached screenshots of Amanda Overton’s tweets).

(Let’s also not forget that team at Fortiche indicated that the woman that Ambessa killed in Mel’s flashback is an Ionian princess, implying that the invasion of Ionia occurred prior to the events of Arcane; Fortiche animators were also the ones to propose the CaitVi sesbian lex scene; let’s not even get to Amanda Overton’s comments regarding how the Fortiche team implied the romantic relationship between Jayce and Viktor like, the Fortiche team is doing a lot of heavy lifting lol)

At the end of the day, the story we see as the audience is in filmic form, which is a primarily visual medium, so any bits of lore or story is based on what the storyboarding, voice over, animation, and post-production teams want us to see and take away from it.

(Edit: sorry! I completely forgot to actually put the images of the transcript!)

[gachagon]

I haven't made a post on it yet so here is one about how Mel's ending has an air of hope and opportunity in it, even though she ends up "with nothing" in the end. In the opening for the show, we see that Mel and Ambessa swap places on this very same lounge chair, foreshadowing that she'd eventually take her mother's place as head of the Medarda's personal army.

In Noxian society, strength comes before anything else but "Strength" isn't just "whoever has the most muscle/power" it can mean many things, in fact in the League of Legends lore Noxus has three core pillars of strength.

"Vision, Might, and Guile"

Essentially, there's more than one way to be strong in Noxus outside of being physically overpowering to others, or having the most influence. Mel fits right in with the rest of the Noxus characters even though she may not think it herself, because she's constantly referred to as "The Fox" or "clever", alluding to the idea that her strength comes in the form of "Guile". Being clever and outsmarting your opponents.

Mel's strength is different from Ambessa's overt physical prowess, and now that Mel is essentially a general of her own war band, she has a chance to lead said war band in a way that's different from Ambessa.

Ambessa used the Medarda war band to protect her family via securing more power for the Medarda's as a whole, but Mel now has a chance to use said war band for a totally different reason and cause, one that suits her needs and not her mothers. Since the next show for Arcane will definitely take place in Noxus, it makes me wonder if Mel will potentially use her families war band to help other people, rather than for subjugation and to colonize more places for Noxian control.

In the games lore, Noxus is this all powerful nation that has slow going plans to invade and eventually take over the world, by making every nation Noxus. And the most recent place is Ionia, which is a nation full of nothing BUT magic.

And Mel herself is very magical, so I just feel like even though her ending was sad because she had lost her mother and is now by herself, an opportunity has arisen for her where she's now got more power than she ever did before. She may not be the "ruler" of Noxus (no one is really, not even Leblanc...) but she can go and help other people, she has more political sway, she can finally be involved in the Noxian military without her mother's direct input.

In Season 1, Mel wants to spare that girl who was supposedly a princess of a fallen court that was now under Noxian rule, but Ambessa murdered her anyways because keeping her alive was too much of a liability.

Mel is always looking for ways to compromise the violent acts the Noxian army commits, and now she literally can call the shots of her own army to, do things her way. I think that's a very hopeful ending for her, because she has always been someone who wanted to prove herself and to make change, and now she has that, even though it cost her a great amount of strife and pain.

It's also worth noting that her story wasn't just about her mother accepting her as strong, but about accepting the way she used her strength. Mel wasn't strong in the way Ambessa was, and because of this Ambessa believed her to be weak, too weak to really be the head of the Medarda war band. She sent Mel to Piltover specifically because she believed Mel's strengths would be better there, in a place that wasn't a battlefield (per Ambessa's Champion story on the league website) And because she had already lost her son to battle, she took on this burden of being the strongest Medarda she possibly could for her family.

Learning to accept the different pillars of strength was what Ambessa had to learn, she had forgotten that there isn't just "Might" but also "Guile" and "Vision", a way to be strong without overpowering others physically. And I think many Noxian characters also forget this aspect, which gives Mel a new purpose to show the "Guile" part of Noxian society, where you don't have to murder everyone in your path in order to be seen as strong.

Granted, this does make Mel an even more morally grey character, because she's still essentially apart of a murderous colonizing regime T_T but the idea that she can bring compromise to a nation that almost forgets what that is at times is important to me.

That, and Ionia is also a nation about "balance" and how you can't really have too much of one aspect of nature. Violence and Peace has to have a balance in order for things to stay chill, and this disagreement is why the Ionian invasion is such a bloody war to begin with. But that's a whole other story you can read on the league website.

[chronicsyd]

so I WAS going to post another long winded rant about Disney's Wish (I'll post that later) but Arcane decided to post another 30 second Teaser for us; and announcing the Trailer (yes, FULL Trailer AHHH! *ahem* sorry) is going to be releasing on September 5th! But let's get into what they showed us in this little teaser shall we? (go check out the teaser first it's only like 30 seconds and as usual, leaks will be blocked and deleted)

With this one frame they've already showed us several things. they've confirmed everything that was talked about Vi at the Annecy festival (some people were kinda skeptical if this was something that was legitimate for a while, myself included), and they've confirmed for me that Vi and Caitlyn are going their own ways at the beginning of the season (for a little while, at least). Vi tries to figure herself out in Zaun while Caitlyn's still an Enforcer up in Piltover. They also seem to be confirming the idea that there's some kind of time skip happening in s2 (not as large as s1 but there's something). And why I believe this is because Jinx is being painted in the same light as Vander, as someone that's respected in Zaun. People have already started rallying behind her at this point in the story.

Now, the bigger meat of the teaser:

I put Caitlyn and Jinx side by side for a couple reasons. Not only are these two taking on more of a leadership role this season, they're enforcing the idea that these two are the two sides of the same coin they hinted at in season 1 (they just both seem to be heading in the opposite direction the other was in season 1, if that makes sense), but they both have a figure explaining to them what they need to do for the better of Zaun/Piltover: Ambessa and Sevika. However, each of these characters are being told different things. Ambessa is a War general, she believes that in restoring peace Caitlyn needs to declare Martial Law aka military government and it seems that Caitlyn not only does this but she allies herself with Ambessa and Noxus in order to do this. On the other hand, Sevika's explaining to Jinx that she's the one that can rally Zaun together (and it seems that Ekko might actually be joining her on this). Because under both Vander and Silco there were still people opposed to how the Undercity was run (Under Vander, he was playing it safe with Piltover but Piltover was treating the Undercity badly but under Silco he was a kingpin and several people were still suffering under the effects of Shimmer and the only reason the Enforcers weren't as hostile because of Silco's allyship with Marcus, until Jinx steals the gemstone and Piltover retaliates). But with Zaun actually being at war with Piltover now, Jinx needs to be seen as a symbol for Zaun for people to rally behind, because to them Topside is the bigger enemy.

(I just had to add this pic of Sevika because like God Damn she looks so attractive here like step on me! *ahem* sorry, had a bit of gay panic there...moving on...)

Now, I'm going to hold off on giving my overall thoughts until the full trailer drops in a couple of days. just so that I can gather some more thoughts about where season 2 is going as a whole and when I'm given some more information to glean from, granted I'm SURE that the trailer won't give us any clear cut information because Arcane is great at that.

Oh one last thing:

Jinx's poster in for S2 has her being strangled by Vi's gauntlet, and Jinx is faced upsidown (with the caption "Time to turn things upsidedown") which i presume is just how different everyone/everything is going to be different compared to the last season. but i do wonder What Happens between Vi and Jinx that gets them like this? Because there Has to be a scene between the two that ends badly (probably before we see Vi with her black hair and leather, because in the earlier pic i showed Vi's already seeing Jinx pained alongside Vander)

ok NOW I'm done.

Anyways, I'll post again in the next couple of days when the trailer comes out. Bye!

[explosionshark]

(Kicking my feet off the bed Iike Faith) so anyways. Caitlyn’s maternal family have been watchers for generations, but Caitlyn resents that her mother uses her influence on the Watcher’s Council to keep Cait out of harm’s way. She LEAPS at the opportunity to ship off across the pond & be away from her, even if her assignment at that point is just “twiddle your thumbs for a bit”.

she’s assigned to the same county that Vi is incarcerated in: ostensibly because the council has credible reports of a potential slayer in the area & will send details soon (lol), more realistically bc sending her there fulfills her desire to be In The Field while satisfying Cassandra’s desire to keep her safe. After all, the only would-be Slayer she could mentor is behind bars, and the Council can’t just meddle in the American Judicial System for their own benefit, right???

right?????

Anyway Vi 110% does not listen to her bc who the fuck are you, you’re like 4 years at most on me, fuck off. It’s Caitlyn exasperatedly trying to explain things and plan with Vi whose solution to everything is just “okay but I can stake them and they die right? So why not just go in with that plan every time?” While Caitlyn tries not to Scream

im realizing implies Jayvik are the closest things to Willow and Tara and yknow what. That’s not that wrong either. When you really think about it, Mel leaving Piltover is kinda like Cordelia leaving Sunnydale. Which I guess makes Noxus the Los Angeles of League/Arcane, a statement that is actually not untrue LMAO

Anyways. I’m going insane about this now. I’m so normal about this. Vi the Vampire Vlayer real.

CAITLYN IS WESLEY....!!!! LIKE SHE SUCKS LESS BUT DUDE SHE'S LIKE IF WES WAS A HOT LESBIAN WITH MOM ISSUES

Honestly, Cait's mentor being Grayson who managed to pull strings for her to get Vi released is perfect bc like. Yes it was the right thing to do. But it also involves the absolutely unconscious flex of a massive amount of privilege that Caitlyn would 100% not even think of acknowledging (it's not PERSONAL privilege after all, it's just using the massive institutional power she has behind her and it's actually just making things right so no big deal???) and that would absolutely put her and Vi in such a tense place to start out bc Caitlyn literally bucks the entire prison system ("what like it's hard?") that has had its boot on Vi's neck for years and THEN starts telling her whAT TO DO. NO SHE DOESN'T HAVE FIELD EXPERIENCE BUT SHE TRAINED A LOT AND HAS ALL THESE BOOKS

But also she IS hot and Vi IS a dyke and she ALSO is weak to anyone taking care of her at all so it wouldn't take much to get a hook in her.

Jayvik + Mel rounding out the Scoobies is so good. Ekko + the Firelights could stand in for Gunn and his crew. There's something here. I'm going crazy.

[HEAVY BREATHING] VI AND CAIT H/C AFTER THE CRUCIAMENTUM (CAIT WASN'T TOLD ABOUT IT, ABSOLUTELY FLIPS HER SHIT WHEN SHE FINDS OUT VI IS IN DANGER, BIG BREAK FROM HER IDEALISM HERE)

[cookierye]

ive decided it's been long enough. ramble time

let's talk about ambessa in arcane season 2 and the kindred

first things first. as there's a lot of people who don't know league stuff but still watched arcane, fuck are the kindred? well, they're death. kind of

there's multiple interpretations of death in this universe. one of them however is the interpretation of the kindred, two entities that always go together. one grants a death swift and painless, the other toys with its victims and grants them a slow death. depending on the region, this duo can look like a number of different creatures, however for ease's sake i will go with the default freiljord representation: lamb being the first, wolf being the second

the reason why this means anything is because a lot, and i mean a lot of regions believe in the kindred as their twin deities of death. this includes piltover, zaun, and most of what ill talk about here, noxus

noxus is a region that loves its wars. it loves its fighting, and thinks the most honourable way to die is in battle. in regard to the kindred, this translates to that noxians think even death should be fought, therefore being brought to their end by the jaws of the wolf is the only right way to go. a death in lamb's hands, a calm and peaceful one, is seen as a coward's way out

so let's talk about ambessa.

another note for our non league arcane fans: ambessa was added to league of legends after her arcane debut. with that release came a cinematic which i absolutely recommend watching, but to make a long story short: ambessa, while almost having died in battle, was visited by a wolf and got a vision of her being chosen by the kindred, taking a deal granted to her by a very wolf-like version of lamb. she's presumed to be pregnant with mel during the cinematic, and there's imagery of her sacrificing a lamb statue

now to arcane. ambessa is of course a noxian as we all know, and so is of course mel. the only way acceptable for them to die, to her, is in battle.

in a conversation between the medardas during season 2, ambessa makes a comment on "sacrificing one child for another". the black rose makes it clear that ambessa, even if not willingly, let kino die. it seems like ambessa indirectly sacrificed kino to save mel, just like she, in the cinematic, brought the statue of the lamb to be sacrificed

and the finale goes with her going up against caitlyn and mel

during the fight, you might have noticed a little conversation between the medardas. when mel brings out the amulet given to her by leblanc (presumably the sorceress, yes), she says the words "a wolf has no mercy"

wolf, of the kindred, is not a merciful death. it's a long and painful and difficult death. mel knows ambessa might die at the hands of leblanc. to mel, leblanc is the wolf. the painful, slow death

and yet she steps in anyways. because the noxians fight the wolf, even at death

despite that, as ambessa dies in her arms, she looks at mel. and her expression isn't anger or sadness. it's complete and unsheltered pride. happiness. and ambessa's final words are these

"you are the wolf"

mel is ambessa's death at the end. ambessa and mel fought and mel won. ambessa dies in battle, and she dies honourably. ambessa sacrificed kino and died in mel's arms after losing the battle to her

ambessa sacrificed the lamb. died at the hands of what she, herself, called the wolf

kino was ambessa's lamb when mel was her wolf.

[clefaiiiry]

Join me as I try to figure out where the FUCK Sett's arena is

Since Riot haven't even given a name for Sett's mother's tribe, you know damn well they're not going to make this easy.

But anyway, long ramble under the cut;

For starters, we know it's in a city called Qayanvi. We know this via voicelines and flavour text in Legends of Runeterra.

Legends of Runeterra Voicelines from Sett

So what do we know about Qayanvi and, more importantly, where is it?

Title Menu Splash art for Legends of Runeterra shortly after the Glory in Navori expansion dropped.

This art for the title menu on LoR shows Jack presumably before crashing Sett's arena as shown in their card arts. While is is not confirmed outright, it's pretty safe to assume. But since we know what the interior looks like via multiple card arts, we don't even have to assume.

Sett and Jack's Level 1 Card Arts from LoR

Qayanvi must have been a region that Noxus controlled - or at least had influence in - during the First Invasion, and Sett wouldn't move since he wants to stay close to his mother. This is a little harder to figure out since the interactive map on universe only shows the areas currently occupied by Noxus during the Second Invasion.

First image; Red highlights show areas occupied by Noxus. Second image shows place names.

Some of the architecture also seems to have heavy Noxian influence, with this large brutalist grey stone courtyard. We can also see in other card arts that this Noxian style of architecture is present in other locations in Ionia.

Lord Broadmane Card Art from LoR. I don't think this is Qayanvi since the Ionian buildings in the background have blue roofs rather than red ones, but it shows how the Noxian structures coexist alongside the Ionian ones across the previously occupied regions.

We also know that Qayanvi is on the coast since we can see the harbour in the background here.

It also would have been reasonable to assume Qayanvi was a coastal city even without this confirmation since trade is so important for such a crime ridden city. Sett's arena is operating out in the open and everyone knows what sort of dirty business a crime boss like that gets into. Having direct trade links with Noxus and Piltover / Zaun just makes the who operation so much easier.

Navori as a region is described as having 'notable' criminal influence and is quite unstable due to it's previous occupation.

Card Art for The Witness. I'm not as confident about this one being Qayanvi, but the sea wall looks to be similar and the buildings in the background also appear to have a similar shape / red roofs.

Biome map used during development of the Interactive Runeterra map. Link attached to image.

The coastal area that I would have assumed Qayanvi to be in is shown to be a steppe / prairie. It's hard to judge in the images we have, but this looks somewhat consistent.

So we're looking for a coastal area in Navori, not necessarily still in Noxian controlled space, but close enough to continue trade.

Location of Ionian Capital taken from the Wiki; unable to find a source. The city is officially referred to as Ionia City, and is where the Ionian Council meet for various discussions / debates.

With all this in mind, I'm gonna take a stab and estimate that Qayanvi is somewhere within this red line;

Areas in black I think are highly unlikely, areas in yellow are potential but I'm not as confident. The large area south of Ionia City and west of Weh'le I believe(?) is the area attacked by Singed's chemical weapons and therefore are too barren to sustain a city like Qayanvi.

I'm not totally happy with my guess and I'd love to see other people take a swing, but this is the closest I would be happy to guess with the information I can find.

If you made it to the end of this post, thank you for reading and I hope this was interesting!

[onceuponalegendbg]

Thoughts During Arcane 2x01 Heavy is the Crown

AHHHHHHHHH!!!

Anyway. Let's go.

Jayce is not the first person I wanted to see. Oh but Mel too.... OH she's alive thank god!

Save Viktor!!!

That is probably a horrible idea in the long term.

Same song, different visuals.

Yeah... we all knew Mama Cass wasn't gonna make it. Sigh...

Visually this whole sequence is stunning. Poor Tobias in the back....

God, you're only going make it worse dude...

2 to 1, indeed....

Cait looks so small...

While, yeah, Tobias sniped at Vi there, I do like that you see him soften. The man is grieving, I get it. He's a gentle guy by nature but... it's tricky.

OH GOD I WAS NOT EXPECTED HER TO BREAK AND HUG VI SHIT I'M CRYING TOO NOW WHAT THE HELL!! Baby no! Don't cry! I'm so sorry!

And of course ....the badge.... "I thought you were on our side." Oh no.... oh no no no.... Cait, sweetheart, I love you. I know you're grieving but oh baby.... that is not the way to do this.... shit...

That was not the move sweetpea. God Cait...

Hey. Jayce. I guess.

How does this show look even more beautiful than season 1?

Wow... Cait and Jayce actually having a meaningful conversation. That was the most invested I've ever been in a Jayce scene.

"And I thought she had no sense of humor." ..... Well, about that...

"It's nice to know there's still good ones left." ..... Yikes. Like, you seem sweet Maddie but....yikes.

God the lighting!!!! Seriously this looks so good!!!

There's about to a bombing or a shooting.

I FREAKIN KNEW IT WAS THAT LADY!!!

Saving each other, hell yeah.

I swear if we lose Mel I quit.

Oooh right in the back geez.

Bro, did not have Vi wielding Jayce's hammer on my bingo card.

And there's Noxus.

It's really just an endless cycle.

God these two...

Heavy is the crown... and Cait is about to put it all on herself...

Also, I'm just calling it now. Mama Ambessa pulled all the strings here.

Oh Cait.... Yeah Mel you probably should look terrified.

Gotta say, that was a pretty solid start to the season. On to the next one.

[witchcraftandburialdirt]

Because I know we talked about it but also because I know it's smthn u enjoy thinking about: How much has Tarhos corrupted Haru and how much of it is just the darkin is a God, corrupted as he may be, that actually answered his prayers unlike the others?

✧ ── 𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐃𝐂𝐀𝐍𝐎𝐍 𝐈𝐍𝐐𝐔𝐈𝐑𝐈𝐄𝐒 LEAGUE VERSE

Something that makes Haruo and Tarhos' relationship unique is, at least to me, their joined mindspace - while Rhaast and Kayn can communicate telepathically and can read eachother it is still two separate beings bickering with one another. For Haruko and Tarhos the line is much more blurred; they experience eachother's feelings and desires, hear each single thought and even have shared dreams. They are less "two people in one body" and much more "one person in two bodies" in terms of how they can communicate with eachother, I mean technically if we wanted to get really into it we could debate about how there is no true unified "self" but rather a fractaling recursion of self-repeating selves - think about how your conscience talks to you in your own voice or how you ask yourself questions and you answer them - that. Its incredibly complicated to try to explain in a tumblr post but that is how, for myself at least, Haru and Tarhos operate. Tarhos and Haru can hear the other one talking and know its not them doing it but it still feels like their own thought. I hope that makes sense because it's only going to get worse from here -

While that isn't necessarily the question I do think its an important thing to distinct when speaking about them; before Tarhos found a vessel they basically acted as a singular unit anyway - I doubt that mindset would change much once he took over the dragon in Ionia. So, beginning with that I'm going to continue on and say that I don't think Haru was "corrupted" so much as he was validated. Before the Noxian invasion Haruko was most likely living peacefully in Bahrl with his village and family, there was tension between Vastayans and Humans as always but he didn't go out comitting murder for fun. He just simply did not interact with them or care enough to - and I really don't think he cared about or even knew about Noxus. Based on that alone we can see a distinct difference from the past to present, and I do think that has a large chunk to do with Tarhos. Darkin are PTSD ridden forgotten Gods whose last moments feeling sunlight were surrounded by the rise of the Void, and the fall of Azir along with the Empire of Shurima - and when Haruko first found Tarhos, the blade was eager for bloodshed and violence.

Upon first contact their minds partially merged, Haru's strength of spirit was able to dominate and shackle back Tarhos' possession of him for the most part, but not completely. The battle was fought and Haruko fled having lost practically everything within a single day by an unknown force that brutalized without mercy - which I'm sure is an event Tarhos can understand way too well. This is where the validation and mind-merging come into play; even if Tarhos did not actively say anything to Haru at that time, Haru can still feel what Tarhos is and vice versa. Within Tarhos' own bloodlust and hatred towards the Void Haru felt validated and correct in his anger and immediate dehumanization of Noxians; seeing them as a plague to Ionia much like the Void is a plague to Shurima. Once the mind has decided to dehumanize it is very easy for people to fall into acts of violence without any reprise or guilt over them; its happened many a time throughout history and is still happening today. And that is very hard to change once its cemented, particularly through a place of deeply rooted trauma which resulted in a cultural and territorial genocide. One of which the very land has still not healed from.

Haru does view Tarhos as a God too - he is one - and to have those views validated and reaffirmed by something so universally larger than him screams to him that he is correct. Tarhos didn't have any bit of a healthy mindset when they originally met, they were both spiteful and livid at the world around them - and violence always breeds violence, anger breeds anger etc. With Tarhos healing though it does leave an actively larger question regarding that original validation; does it still hold as much as it should? Haru hates Noxians so much and frankly would be fine if they were eradicated, but that seems a very sharp shift for a creature thats lived in relative peace for 300+ years. Anger is often a mask we wear to hide things we're not ready to face yet, its the brain defending itself from whatever ugly can of worms needs to be opened but will really really hurt when it eventually does.

In short, Haru has found comfort, validation, and solace in a bloodthirsty God which reaffirms his fury and approves of it - he isn't getting any help for the legitimate reasons he's like this - and until he does there won't be any end to it. I don't think he was corrupted, I think Tarhos' just helped pour gasoline ontop of a small fire and both of them let it explode without really thinking about the consequences afterwards or why the fire was there to begin with.

[independentzaun]

👪 for Sevika?

👪 for my muse to talk about a family member of theirs: Still Accepting

“Talking about my family is always difficult. Not because of any especially bad memories beyond your typical poor family Zaun stuff, but because mostly it was just me and my Da. My great gran passed away before I was a teenager, and other than her it was just my Da.” Going silent for a moment Sevika reached up to tug at her leather choker necklace before actually taking it off to run it through her fingers.

“This supposedly came from Noxus. Great gran said “something” got handed down to my Ma. Family type thing, and that my Da took it after she passed and that he’d give it to me when the time was right. I didn’t know what she meant for years. Not till it turned out she was right, and he did give it to me. I’m not sure he really wanted to give it to me, but when I came back from Stillwater he brought it out anyways. He told me that Ma never wore it because she wasn’t a fighter not physically. Said she was a strong woman in her way. Strong willed, and stubborn. That he saw a lot of her in me that way. Just wanted a peaceful life though. He didn’t know the details, but there’s supposed to be some story about this leather going to the strongest fighter of the family be it woman, or man. It’s all I have from that side of the family.”

Turning it over in her fingers Sevika shrugged. “It’s a nice story. Honestly though? It’s hard to believe a poor Zaun family kept hold of this for more than one generation, and that it actually came from Noxus. That said whenever I show it to anyone that knows about fabric, and leather and all they always say it’s real leather. Not some half and half mix or anything like we see a lot here in Zaun so it might be real. That doesn’t really matter though. What does matter is it got handed down, and I’m not going to let it go. Not for anything.” She took a moment to put the leather back around her throat as it so often was before leaning back a bit.

“Not sure that’s really what was asked, but it’s what you’re getting.”

[noxianwilled]

Meta on Katarina telling Talon he is now what she used to be, and how she feels about his current mindset and how it compares to her own in the past.

send me a topic to write a meta about my muse on

— @visionoxus

her entire life, since a very young age, katarina was raised to be "the ultimate weapon". from childhood, she was taught the path of the blade and all it entails, but from birth she was raised above others by virtue of her blood. no one doubted she was going to succeed her father when the time came — not even katarina herself.

but, much more than a birthright, it was what she dedicated herself entirely to be. she knew what she was capable of. she grew desperate to prove herself (and though i don't think her bio is wrong to say she longed to do her part for noxus — she certainly did, she was always greatly devoted to her nation — part of it was to prove herself to her father). i don't think she was ever in a position to doubt she was his heir, but that doesn't mean marcus ever demonstrated that. and she wanted his recognition. she wanted him to be proud.

all things considered, i think it's just a very natural desire from someone who grew up in a household where, despite her dedication to being the perfect weapon she was being raised to be, it doesn't seem to me like it was ever acknowledged as more than her duty. she didn't have a childhood, i doubt she had good friends, and she didn't get much (if any) affection from her parents either. the childish yearning for affection grew to be a simple desire to be perceived. she wanted to be acknowledged. she wanted her father to be proud. i think, in part, she thought if she could just prove herself in the field, show the results she was capable to achieve, do something that'd leave him undoubtedly pleased, marcus would finally show he was proud. that if she could impress him she'd finally have his affection.

after her failure, her resentment and heartbreak are entirely directed at her father — she accepts the punishment for her failure because she recognized she failed. not him, but what she should really be fighting for, which was noxus. she failed because she wanted his recognition. but i think she's only capable of realizing that because she understands how much of her motivation was for her father, for the affection and pride she wanted to receive, when he sentences her to death for shaming their house (and she had the painful realization even if she had succeeded instead of failing because of her arrogance and eagerness to prove herself, things wouldn't have been as wonderful as she had hoped they'd be).

in the comic, when they fight and she slashes talon's face, he questions for how long she wanted to do that, and she replies he was a kid following orders, that she didn't want any of that (she really never blamed either him or cass for however badly things got between her and her parents; not even when talon was the one used to try to punish her for her failure — in many ways, it made her even more resentful towards marcus).

but to finally get to the point, when he asks what about now and she says he's who she used to be. personally, i have my issues with the comic and with how talon is portrayed, but looking at what is there.

she says "now, you're who i used to be. trying to make him the father we thought he was by being the child he said he wanted. but we were just a pair of blades in his collection." and i honestly think from her point of view it is what that looks like. talon wants to be his heir. he wants to prove himself by taking his place as heir (although, to me, it does seem like he gave up on fighting or trying to kill her and i think that'd demand more than to have his face cut but anyway! i'm not here to analyze talon aushuash). he's eager to prove himself, like she was. he wants to make marcus proud, like she wanted.

the way she sees it, talon is blinded by his loyalty to their father the same way she was. because, before her failure, serving noxus and serving marcus all blended as one thing to her. she trusted him more than anyone. she was more loyal to him than to anything else. and from her perspective, that's exactly where talon stands, as she says with the "you think you're being loyal to him and noxus, but that's because you trust him. and i'm done with that."

marcus was her greatest disappointment (when she failed her first mission as well as with the events of the comic, when he shows he didn't place noxus first after all). it was her first and most terrible heartbreak. and honestly i think her heart would ache to see talon as she was before, because she genuinely cares for her siblings, and she was definitely closer to tal. katarina loves her brother, and it pains her to see him like that, because from her perspective, she's seen the truth — marcus was never a good father, he'd never give them the recognition they desired, they were just tools to be used and disposed of as he saw fit, and maybe talon had it better than her being his favorite and all, but in the end marcus was not above using talon as a tool to punish her all those years ago.

to her, he didn't care for them as his children the way he should, and she's sad that talon still can't see it, that he's still trying to be what marcus wants him to be rather than finding his own path and following his own ideas. she doesn't resent him for it — she's been there, after all. she knows what it's like, and how blinding that can be. i think what she expresses by the end of the scene, when he asks what he deserves and she says "same as me, i hope, tal… to be more than he made us. i hope you realize that someday." encapsulates it really well. she wants him to outgrow that too. she hopes talon will leave that mindset behind, like she did. she learned to see her own worth, to make her own path, to follow her own rules, and she feels talon is just as capable to do it, he only needs to open his eyes to how things really are.

it's heartbreaking to see someone she loves in the same position she was in during what she sees as her worse, what led her to her greatest failure, what made her purpose most misguided. talon and katarina clashed (seriously, in combat that left permanent scars, in fights that were meant to end with one of them dead), but she loves him, she knows he's capable of more than that, and she sincerely hopes he'll see it like she eventually saw it (even if, after the events of the comic and knowing he went to soreana and cassiopeia in shurima, she doesn't feel very optimistic that he will).

[djfics]

Hiding these Violet Eyes Arc 2 Part 1

Chapter 2: Back to School

Summary: Aphelios, Ezreal, and Akali decide to take their home classes with professor Heimerdinger. Thresh decides to help Sett by transferring him to a new school, and he meets new friends.

WC: 1,328

New Character: Heimerdinger, Talon, Katarina, Briar, Samira, and Caelum

January 20, 8:00 A.M. - Library at Kench's mansion

"Greetings students, my name is Professor Heimerdinger, and I will be your professor for this semester," a blonde yordle with blue eyes and wears a professor outfit said with a smile.

"This...is our professor Evelynn?" Aphelios asks Evelynn, and she nods. "He's one of the best professors of all Runeterra guys. He will teach you everything," Evelynn said.

Now that they are on their second semester of their senior year, they need to graduate to go for their dream college. Akali wants to go to Ionia College to become a nurse, Ezreal wants to go to Piltover College to have his arqueologist career, and Aphelios wants to go to Targon College to manage the company.

"Anyway... I'll be upstairs if you need me." Evelynn went upstairs and waves to Aphelios and his friends.

"Okay, let's start with Math Class," Heimerdinger said, and they groaned.

Later

While Heimerdinger is teaching them about science, Ezreal is chatting with Ekko and Jinx while hiding his phone under the table.

Chat:

Ezreal: Hey...can you guys have a talk?

Ekko: What now, Ez? 😮‍💨

Jinx: We will get in trouble because of you 😠

Ezreal: We know that Kayn is a huge fan of this band

Jinx: And? 🤨

Ezreal: I want to know the date

of the tour in Valoran City

Ekko: Ez, is on the last day of January, We're planning to find Janna on this day, so stop asking us!!

Ezreal: This sucks 😑

Ekko: I know, but you have to be patient

Ezreal: I know Ò3Ó💢 I'm v-

-

"Ouch!!" Ezreal got hit by a chalk by Professor Heimerdinger. "You're paying attention, Ezreal?" Ezreal nodded, and he told his friends that he would talk to them later.

"Ez, if you keep distracting, you will never become an arqueologist," Aphelios signed, and Ezreal looked at him. "You're right...I will be patient and study hard to make my dreams come true." Ezreal puts mute on his phone and puts away.

"I'm ready"

January 20, 7:45 A.M. - Noxus Academy

"Is this my new school, Mr.Thresh?" Sett was looking at his new school and nodded.

"Yes, this is were I study when I was eighteen. Now that your nineteen, I want you to study here since you want to handle a company, am I right?" Sett nodded and looks at Thresh.

"I know you can do it, Settrigh." Thresh smiled at Sett as he got out of the limousine. Cedric looked at Sett, walking to his new school and looked at Thresh.

"Do you want to go elsewhere, Mr.Thresh?" Cedric asks, and Thresh nodded. "Yes, I want to visit Aatrox and his family, I need to help with his company,"

"Of course, Mr.Thresh," Cedric turns on the limousine and drives off. Thresh looks at Cedric while drinking his glass of wine and pulls out his journal of events he needs to assist.

"Well, looks like I won't be alone on the events I will be assisting,"

"Today, we have a new transfer student from Valoran City and came to Noxus City. Why don't you introduce yourself?" Sett comes inside of his new classroom and greets to them.

"My name is Settrigh...and I'm here with the help of Mr.Thresh with his company," Everyone gasps at Sett and starts talking.

"Why don't you take a seat next to Caelum" Sett saw a guy with white and black hair, pointy ears with piercings, gothic makeup that pops out his green eyes and wears the Noxus High school uniform with spikes, chains and safety pins and black boots with red laces.

Sett sat next to Caelum, and he looked at him. "The name's Caelum, Caelum Dusk," Caelum introduced himself with a smile.

"Settrigh, call me Sett for short,"

Later

"Damn... sorry about your mother, Sett," Caelum said while lighting a cigarette. "Aren't too young to smoke?" Caelum laughs at Sett's question and smirks.

"I don't give sh*t what people say to me" Caelum tries to smoke until he saw two students: one has black brown hair, gold eyes and wears a hoodie with his school jacket, plaid pants and shoes and the other one has red hair, green eyes and wears her Noxus uniform along with brown shoes.

"Crap...is Talon and Katarina." Caelum throws his cigarette away and stomps it. "Smoking again, Caelum?" Katarina asks Caelum and smirks.

"I was showing the new transfer student how not to smoke because is very d-dangerous for his health," Caelum lied. "I don't believe you." Talon crossed his arms and looked at Sett.

"You must be Sett?" Talon asks Sett, and he nods. "We heard about you and your boyfriend. We have our condolences," Katarina said, Sett knew that the news of Aphelios' death were heard all around Runeterra and sighed.

"I know everyone hates you, but don't worry...Noxus City is hated by everyone because *ahem* I'm Talon du Coteau, this is Katarina, and we're members of the student council in Noxus High," Talon shake his hand to Sett, and he shake them back.

"What are your roles?" Sett asks them. "I'm the vice president, Katarina is the president, Caelum is the secretary, Briar is the coordinator, and Samira is the auditor," Talon explained as Katarina got an idea and looked at Sett.

"We're looking for a treasurer since our last treasurer got expelled for stealing the school founds recently," Katarina explained while Caelum pulled out his cigarette.

"Yeah, this b*tch deserve it," Caelum laughs while smoking. "Hey Sett, do you know about money?" Caelum asks Sett, and he nods.

"Easy, we found one"

"Are you crazy Caelum!?" Talon shouted at Caelum until he heard a woman's voice.

"He's not crazy Talon," they turned and saw a woman with black hair and green eye with an eyepatch, and her school uniform is prim and elegant along with jewelry.

"The name's Samira and this is Briar, we're part of the student council," Samira said as Sett saw a girl with white hair with pink streaks, white eyes and her uniform is a bit of goth along with cuffs on her wrists and boots.

"Oooohhhh!! A Vastaya...I never see one like him before." Briar looks at Sett curiously and grins at him.

"What did I tell you about it, Briar?" Talon glares at Briar, and she sighs.

"That I don't get close or being curious around new students..." Briar went back to Samira with a pout, which made Samira giggled.

"Anyway, what do you say, Settrigh?" Katarina raised her hand to Sett. Sett started to think that this position would help Thresh's company and pay his mom's medical bills.

He shook Katarina's hand in agreement, and she smiled at him.

"Welcome to The Student Council Settrigh"

Zaun City

*knock knock*

"Oh... Miss Renata..." A woman's voice said, and she looked at Renata with her blue eyes, and noticed that she's wearing a mask. "What...h-"

"Some of my dead patients did this to me Janna, I'll be with Mr.Thresh, and don't you dare leave this house, got it?" Janna nodded to Renata, and she close the door.

Renata left the house and went to the booth and pressed the microphone button. "Just keep an eye on her, got it!!"

"Y-Yes, Miss Glasc!!" A girl's voice said nervously, and Renata scoffed and left. The girl looked at Renata leaving and entering her new car and left. She looked at the picture of Zaun City, who was before and sighed.

"Hope someone will save us from Renata...." she thought and continued doing her job. Meanwhile, a woman with brown hair, brown eyes, a scar on her face to her neck, wearing a brown leather jacket, a white shirt, a prosthetic arm, jeans, and brown boots, accompany with a yordle with a black and red helmet, green goggles, a giant grin on his face and wearing a black, red and silver outfit.

"Well... this is it, Ziggs. We're back to our old home,"

A/N: That concludes Chapter 2, guys!! I did include Heimerdinger, Briar, Samira, Katarina, and Talon in Arc 2. And of course, caelum is my original character, and he will have secrets (not bad ones).

The next chapter will be the operation to save Janna, I'll see you on Friday.

[monstersqueen]

(edit : adding a read more bc this is too long actually)

ok but they could have just. changed a little the vander|warwick storyline and solved a lot of thing : just delay it a little by having vi finding him

get :

jinx merging silco and vander's philosophy in "i want isha safe. she will never be safe until zaun is free" - and accidentally going back to that scene of silco and vander promising to make zaun a reality for vi. she doesn't want this whole leader/symbol thing. she's still mourning and purposeless - but less so.

ekko getting back in this is very good because he's more or less ready to work with jinx as she is now just as she becomes ready to fight for something

vi getting warwick to viktor and realizing that he's not unmeshing the entangled psyche of vander and the beast - he's removing from vander the aspects he deems imperfect. might even spark a realization about the way she's dividing her sister into the good 'powder' and the bad 'jinx'

caitlyn and jayce, at their lowest, offering a mirror to each other about the way their privilege made them fuck up. jayce seeing where his failings could have lead him in her (when he just saw where viktor's failings could lead him), while this altered version of her brother, who she can't recognize, forces caitlyn to confront how she has changed and not for the better

they either have a screaming match or they comfort each other before starting to fix their fuck ups

which at this point is easier said than done. but also - jayce needs to find viktor. caitlyn needs to find vi.

...which lead us to the end of arc 2 if you add ambessa tracking down warwick. or not ! i think it might be good to let the hextech threat and the ambessa threat be separate, if we get to a point where zaun's independance is a possibility again. on one hand : a zaunite scientist is committing atrocities under the cover of helping in zaun. if zaun can't deal with it before it impacts piltover, piltover is going to 1) consider them incompetent to manage their own 2) consider them degenerates who go against the laws of science and nature. but piltover is distracted by ambessa turning on them, and they can't deal with zaun anymore. they might even need zaun's help, which they're going to have to negotiate for because noxus or piltover makes no difference to zaun, and without the existential threat of the glorious evolution they do not have any incentive to help.

anyway on the piltover side you have caitlyn, understanding how far she let herself slip just as ambessa betrays her, and understandably more concerned by that threat, and jayce, who honestly has one thought in mind and it's save the love of his life

kill his former partner and destroy his own legacy, and so cares a lot more about that threat. let's have mel come into this, who has fresh insights into both and would very much to rest after her ordeal rather than having to deal with all that.

...i can totally see the negotiations stall while jayce sneak in to shoot viktor before dying with him and ekko and cait argue as a distraction for vi and jinx sneaking to ambessa and blowing her up.

that one works because one thing i love about the end of s2arc2 is that it's jayce&viktor's plotline imploding, fucking up the vi&jinx plotline just as it seemed things were finally good or on their way, mirroring how s1 ends on jinx' plotline imploding and fucking up jayce&viktor's plotline just as they were fixing things. that's why they need to fix each other external problems while fixing their own internal problems.

too bad i can't get to caitlyn getting to the conclusion of her arc "we cannot atone for the crimes we committed" (acknowledging both her fallibility and jinx' humanity ! that was very necessary!) to a jinx who. is at the bottom of her own arc, utterly convinced she can only causes the death of those she loves and uninterested into what anyone thinks she should do when (she thinks) she knows that the truth is that she should rot here where she can't hurt anyone. and if vi can't give up on her, then she needs to take herself out before her curse reaches vi. the disconnect would be hilarious if both sides weren't so heartwrenching.

mostly i want to avoid the zaun vs piltover plotline vanishing into thin air just after the liberation of stillwater by jinx leading. nowhere. might as well not have happened.

also the "entangled with the mind of the beast" was such a missed opportunity to point out how viktor is biased in a way that underlines the way the commune is off and leads naturally to "you always tried to fix what you thought was weaknesses [...] there is beauty in imperfections" (hopefully in a way that feels less like implying viktor should have just accepted living a short life in constant pain. which was such hypocrisy from jayce because the whole thing started because he couldn't accept that for viktor !)((especiallay since. i think part of the way it can work from jayce is if you lean into the part where s2!jayce succeeds for the same reason he errs in s1. if his weaknesses become his strengths even as his strengths are weakened (the leg, his mind being affected by the arcane)))